Simple Difference
by freedomtoaster
Summary: Danny Phantom goes on a rant and Valerie discovers a little something about the ghost kid that will turn her world upside down. CH3 has teenage Hormones! YAY.
1. He's sooo evil

The ghost boy shot through the sky, his shock of white hair brushed back by the wind, his green eyes glinting in the sunlight, the wind in his wake rustling in the trees...suddenly a bolt of red energy flashed by him. He dodged, managing to knock quite a few leaves off a nearby tree. Another bolt came hurtling towards him and he jumped to the side, turning to glare at his pursuer.

"Hey, watch it," he yelled. "You almost hit me!"

The red energy bolt missed his ear by a half inch as he ducked to the side.

"Don't worry Ghost boy, that's what I was trying to do!" came his pursuer's angry voice. "Now stand still. I'm only trying to annihilate you!"

The White haired boy rolled his eyes and darted down into the cover of the trees. His pursuer slowed and scanned the treetops. She was plainly female, Clothed in a bright red jumpsuit and helmet, and standing atop a type of hover board that seemed to obey her every command. She fired a bolt of energy into the cover of the trees, sending up a cloud of frightened birds.

"Come out come out where ever you are…" she called. Looking down, she saw a flash of movement. "There you are" she growled. She fired a second bolt into the greenery before she felt the wind on her back, and felt the hairs stand up on her neck. Twisting around rapidly she saw his confident figure, arms folded, floating midair in front of her.

"Look, we need to talk." He began. "you really need to get it through your skull, I AM NOT EVIL! I'm sorry about what happened with that ghost dog, but I promise I won't do it agai-"

He bolted to the side as she shot at him again. "What is with you and that gun?" He yelped. "Can't we just have a level headed talk, no weapons involved…"

"I'm not stupid, ghost boy. I know as soon as I set my weapon down, you'll attack"

"See, there you go again!" He exclaimed, obviously frustrated. "_Where_ are you getting these ideas from? It's not like I actually go hunting YOU. I would be living a perfectly fine life, fighting off all the ghosts that come here to torment the Humans, being a good guy. But nooooooo... I've got some crazy chick here who is convinced that I'M the bad guy. "

She shot at him again, hoping that maybe he'd shut up if he was hurt. He did a back flip in midair, avoiding the shot perfectly.

He glowered at her, his eyes flashing dangerously. "for heaven's sake, WHAT is your problem?" he shouted.

"you're my problem ghost boy, and I won't rest until you and every other ghost like is safely behind bars, never to harm an innocent person again!" he stared at her, his mouth hanging open.

"OH MY GOD! It's like you can't even hear anything I'm saying. _When_ have I ever tried to intentionally hurt someone?"

"gee, I don't know, Maybe when you tried to take the mayor hostage?" the huntress hissed.

The ghost boy buried his heads in his hands and screamed. "ARGH! Okay. FOR THE UMPTEENTH TIME. I never really kidnapped him; he was being overshadowed by a ghost named Walker, who was trying to frame me!"

"Ha," the Huntress scoffed. "Likely story ghost scum." The ghost boy yelled something unintelligible, and then launched into yet another claim that he was innocent. It was rather interesting that he actually thought he could trick her. The Huntress stared at him idly, and slowly raised her gun, aiming right for his chest. She grinned, knowing that the mask she wore hid her expression. The ghost boy didn't even notice. He was still too busy ranting. The Huntress took careful aim and fired. The beam of energy jolted out of the gun, hitting the ghost head on. His frustrated expression quickly changed to shock as he realized what had happened. He plummeted towards the trees, one hand reaching up as though asking for her help. Right before he fell beneath the foliage, there was a bright blast of light, forcing the huntress to shield her eyes. When she could see again, he had disappeared into the green ocean that made up the forest.

The Huntress stared blankly at the spot where the ghost boy had been standing moments ago. Eyes wide as she realized what had happened. A smile crept across her face as she started to laugh. She had finally done it! She had… finally… done it. The smile slowly disappeared. In all honesty, she hadn't really expected to hit him. He usually evaded her shots with practiced ease, and the only times she had ever really managed to hit him had been when he hadn't been expecting it. She felt almost… guilty. She had shot at him, but…he hadn't really tried to hurt her. He had been talking to her, not really trying to fight back, only…

Trying to TRICK her! Telling her he was innocent. _Girl, get yourself together, he's filthy ghost scum! He destroyed your life! _Valerie Gray's eyes hardened. Her hand tightened around the smooth surface of her blaster as she tried to harden her resolve. What had she been _thinking._ He was a ghost. He didn't deserve pity. A sudden thought practically smacked her in the face. He had been trying to trick her, and he was probably trying to trick her now. She turned her hover board towards the dense cover of the trees and shot off.

She had to find him. There was no way she had managed to destroy him. For heavens sake, he was _Danny Phantom_, the ghost kid that seemed as resilient as a cockroach. No, the bright blast of light had obviously been a distraction so he could escape after being wounded.

Valerie sped through the trees, a whirlwind of leaves and other fauna following her. The mask of her suit had pinpointed the most likely location for the ghost boy to have fallen. He couldn't have gotten far from that point; after all, it had only been a few seconds since she had hit him.

The hover board carried Valerie to a clearing almost instantly and she hovered there, scanning the trees for movement.

_There! _A dark figure hunched over and steadying itself on a tree, its hand clutching at an obviously wounded stomach.

"Found ya ghost boy!"

The figure froze at her voice, and then slowly turned to face her. A beam of light illuminated familiar features as he staggered forward. Raven hair, baby blue eyes, even the innocent smile she had grown to know so well.

" hi…Valerie…"came his rasping response. "heh." He tried to laugh, but it sounded more like he was choking. "Never…uh…never thought…you'd…find out…like…this…" he tried to smile again, but ended up keeling over on the ground in a dead faint.

"_Danny?"_


	2. convincing lie

Valerie Gray was very close to having a meltdown.

_Very_ close.

In fact, it was quite likely she was having a meltdown now. However, to be perfectly frank, Valerie Gray was too busy trying to keep breathing to decide what whether or not she was having a meltdown. Her brain was rather busy, you see, with the revelation fate had seen fit to dump right smack in her lap.

Sweet, adorable, rather lazy yet loveable Danny Fenton now lay crumpled on the ground in front of her. While that in itself was rather worrying, a passed out Danny Fenton was not what had driven Valerie to almost have a meltdown; no, the thing that had her so freaked out was the fact that a passed out Danny Fenton lay in the clearing where she had been positive she would find a wounded Danny _Phantom_.

Taking a deep breath Valerie Gray trie to sort out her thoughts. '_Okay, so I shot down Danny Phantom. Right. And…according to my scanners, this is where he should have landed. Yeah. So…Why the heck is Danny Fenton here? Danny Phantom is supposed to be here, and he's not. Danny Fenton's not supposed to be here, and he is._ _Oh my God this is just so messed up what the heck is going on and why do I feel so dizzy wow this forest is really colorful lookit the pretty leaves God I can't breathe-'_

And with that, Amity Park's famous ghost hunter, the Red Huntress, did an inelegant face-plant into the dirt and dead leaves covering the forest floor.

DPDPDPDPDPD

"-lerie, C'mon Valerie, wake up, I need to know youre okay…"

Calling. Someone was calling her name. Valerie's eyes fluttered as she tried to gain some semblance of what was going on- _'Oh my god, Danny!' _What had happened she needed to know what the heck-… Valerie's eyes flew open as her fist shot out, landing a solid punch on whatever threat was hovering over her. A pained yelp came from what she had hit. Valerie blinked as her eyes focused. As she sat up she realized she still felt a little woozy, but at least she still had her suit and could fight off what ever had been- Oh. Well. Oops. The 'threat' he had attacked turned out to be her (sorta) ex-boyfriend, Danny Fenton. Who was, at the moment, clutching his nose like it was broken.

"Danny? What're you doing he-" She froze mid word as it all came rushing back to her. The fight with the ghost kid, shooting him down, trying to find him, and finding Danny instead. She scooted backwards as fast as she could and jumped to her feet, activating the blaster secured to her wrist and pointing it at him.

Danny's eyes widened. "Wowblasterinmyface. Okay, Val? Um… are you okay? And why do you have a gun pointed at me?"

Valerie stared at him. From what she could tell he was completely human, nothing remotely ghostly about weak little Danny Fenton. He looked harmless and rather confused, nothing like that cocky ghost Phantom. She slowly lowered the blaster.

DPDPDPDPDP

Danny tried to look as harmless as possible as he went cross-eyed looking at the gun. Good god, was Valerie scary when she was freaked out. Jeesh. Her eyes darted every which way and her hair had frizzed out around her head. He could only hope that she would see _Fenton_ and not Phantom when she looked at his human face. The blaster slowly lowered and he heaved a sigh of relief. Wheew,

When he had woken up he had seen Valerie passed out on the other side of the clearing. Danny couldn't believe his luck. Heh. All he had to do was convince her it was all a dream and the ghost kid had knocked her out before fleeing. Thank god for super human healing, If he hadn't been the first to wake up, who knows what could've happened. She probably would have taken all sorts of conclusions from his confession earlier, and it was likely she still would_. 'Great job, Fenton. Why the heck did you have to do that. Way to make this 100 times harder.'_ He still didn't know what had come over him, probably the concussion he had received from falling so high. Man, he sure hoped she would be as gullible as the rest of the town. With a smile he really hoped looked completely harmless, Danny tried to get his brain in gear for what he hoped was a _very_ convincing lie.

DPDPDPDPDP

Danny Fenton was not a good liar. However, most of the town was too busy being completely oblivious to notice, or even care. Valerie Gray was far more observant than most of the townsfolk and she prided herself on her passing grades and ability to keep a secret. After all, there was no way she would have been able to be the red huntress if she went around blabbing about it all day. Anyway. She wasn't going to accept those silly little lies Danny always told the teacher when he was late for class. No way, not this time. This time, Valerie was looking for answers and she was going to get them.

The second Danny opened his mouth Valerie could tell he was lying. And, unfortunately for Danny, Valerie wasn't going to let him slide. "Danny, don't even try it. Not right now. Just tell me the truth about whatever the hell happened here."

"Uh, Gee, you know Valerie, like I said…I was just being a normal teenager taking a completely unsuspicious walk in the middle of the woods when I just happened to see you. There. Face down, in the dirt. Oh! And yeah, I saw Phantom flying away. Yeah. "

The boy grinned up at her, apparently trying to project an air of 'look-at-me-I'm-so-innocent'. Yeah…no. It wasn't working. That boy was as guilty as hell. Although…What exactly he was guilty of, she wasn't sure. Still, he was definitely guilty. Of Something.

"Riiiiight. I'm just gonna pretend you didn't say that and give you one more chance." Sweet! The patented Gray!Confidence was back. Valerie let a little smirk slide onto her face when she saw the 'ohshit' look in his eyes. Heh. Too easy. She bent down so she was eye level with the nervous boy. "Just tell me the truth."

DPDPDPDPD

'_convincing lie convincinglieconvincinglie-…yeeeeah…I got nothing'._ Dang it. He really needed to come up with a list of convincing lies so he wouldn't end up stuck like this. Hmmmm…what to say, what to say…Danny's eyes lit up as a sudden thought came to him. '_ooooh, that'll work!'_

"Um, Val, you know, I'm still just kinda surprised to find out that you're the red huntress-"

Valerie stopped breathing for a couple seconds and looked down at herself. Her red armor covered every part of her- except for her face_. 'aw, crap.'_ Her suit must have de-activated the face-plate by itself. The last thing she remembered were the leaves rushing towards her, so she must have landed face first. _'stupid suit, why'd it hav'ta go and try to save me from suffocation.' _Danny was still talking and she was soooo screwed.

"-so anyway this was all just a really biiiiig misunderstanding and-"

Inside his mind Danny was grinning like mad. He had seen Valerie go ridged when he had mentioned the whole 'red huntress' thing. _'Bingo.'_ HAH! Thank you, subject change.

DPDPDPDPD

AN: Oh Boy! Chapter two! Finally uploaded who knows how many months later...Oh well.

You know, I could try to put some really funny comment down here and look supah cool, but knowing me I'd just end up sounding like an idiot. *Sigh* Well, for anyone who cares, I really hope you enjoyed chapter 2 of simple differences. If you wanna leave a comment telling me how Amaaaaaazing it was (or how majorly suckish it was- either one works) I will love you forever.

Y'all come back now, ya hear? ;D


	3. kinky

Holy flying fudge sickle Danny knows who I am Danny knows who I am he knows I'm the red huntress crapcrapcrapcrapcrapcrappity-crap-crap he knows who I am and he's smiling why is he smiling? _I'm_ not smiling he knows crap why is he smiling at me like that WOW that smile is pissing me off… SLAM.

"Crap." Valerie shook her stinging hand in a rather frantic motion. "ahahahaha… I guess the ghost hunting is paying off." She ran a shaking hand through her frizzy hair, taking a deep breath. Her sorta ex-boyfriend Danny Fenton lay sprawled on the ground a few feet away, where he had landed after Valerie had punched him right in the nose. For the second time in about…oh, twenty minutes. Yeeeeah…She really hoped that there was no permanent brain damage in that boy's head. He needed all the brain he could get; even _she_ knew that Danny Fenton was a C student, through and through.

Then again, He had survived fourteen years with his crazy parents…Hopefully a soft little tap like that wouldn't do too much damage, Heck, for all she knew he'd built up a tolerance for being knocked in the head like that. After all, there were quite a few explosions at the Fenton family household. Household…hmmm…speaking of houses, Where was she? Valerie flipped open the pad on the tracking system installed in the arm of her suit.

Her eyebrows rose. The GPS said that she was more than 40 miles out of town, and (obviously) in the middle of the forest. A forest with no marked paths. Okay. So Danny was obviously lying his little heart out. Hmm.

_'Oh-kay that's it.'_ She pulled out the glowing purple handcuffs that had been attached to her belt. Yep. Ghost power inhibiting handcuffs. Danny was either out here snorting crack where no one could see him, coping a feel with that little goth chick, or… This wasn't really Danny. She was more inclined to believe the last one, but hey. Who knew, Maybe Danny was a druggie…or maybe this Danny's body and he was being overshadowed or something.

Valerie stepped over his unconscious form and grabbed one of his arms. She dragged his body over to a tree at the edge of the clearing and propped him up against it, his head lolling to the side. Stepping to the side, she grabbed his wrists and cuffed them together so his arms were bound to the tree behind him.

Valerie stared at him for a moment. He looked kind of adorable, sleeping like that. His midnight fringe brushed over his forehead and made him look as though- _'No. noooooooo. Bad Valerie. Don't think things like that. He might not even be Danny.'_ For heavens sake, he was probably not even human. Heck, his face was already healed despite the fact that she had punched him hard enough to send him flying. Nope. Definitely not human. She nodded once, determined to keep her emotions in check this time. If he wasn't human, a hit like that really shouldn't have knocked him out for so long, in fact, he really ought to be waking up by now…

DPDPDPDPDPDPDP

Danny groaned. He felt like he'd been hit by a bus. Or his ex-girlfriend's fist. Yeah, that sounded about right, he had a distinct memory of a red-leather covered fist hurtling towards his face out of nowhere in the middle of his lie- I…I mean explanation. Yep. Ugh. He really did NOT feel well. He tried to sit up further and push his hair out of his face, but found he couldn't. Hmm. He appeared to be tied to a tree. Now, how had that happened…ah. The culprit shows herself. The lovely Valerie Gray, his ex-girlfriend, looking _Very_ nice in her formfitting red armored-leather suit. Her furious brown eyes locked on his and he felt a flutter in his stomach. She really was pretty, especially when he could see her face, and when she was wasn't trying to kill him…not that the rest of her wasn't something to look at too. That suit of hers was reeeally tight…

'_no. no no no no no. Stop right there Fenton. She wants to KILL you. Or, at least, half of you. Look at her face, you moron. Her FACE.'_ Gah. Stupid teen-age boy hormones. He was tied to a _tree_ for heavens sake. A freaking _tree_! And his ex-girlfriend had put him there.

'_Hmm. Kinky.'_ A smirk snuck its way onto his face before he could squash it and Valerie glared at him.

'_Okay Fenton, stop thinking like that if you want to stay alive. Think about something else. ANYTHING else. Gah!' _He was going to turn into Vlad if he kept pining after hot girls who hated him. Wait a sec. Vlad was after his mom. He just called his mom hot. _'Ewwww. Bad image!'_ wow. _That_ worked. Bye-bye teen-age boy hormones, That thought must have killed them all off.Danny shook his head…he needed to focus on staying alive. After all, Valerie was standing a few feet away with a blaster trained on his face. Yay.

DPDPDPDPDPDPDPDP

What. The. Hell. Was. THAT. _'Not possible, I didn't just see that, nope I'm just crazy. Yeah, that's it, I'm crazy!'_ Valerie's hand shook as she clenched the blaster in her hand tighter, trying not to show her shock. Danny Fenton had just smiled. It's not like the smile itself was particularly special or anything. No, it was where Valerie had seen said smile before. Danny Fenton had just smiled the self-confident smirk she had seen so often on Danny Phantoms face.

She breathed out slowly, trying to calm herself. Why was she so surprised? She'd already decided that this was not her Danny. He had just proven it. So. Now, to figure out if this was Danny's body or if it was just some kind of ghostly trick.

Valerie stepped closer to Danny, footsteps careful and precise, blaster stretched out in front of her.

DPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDP

Danny eyed the blaster in Valerie hand as she crept closer to him.

"Uh, Val? What are you doing?" … No answer. Great. She stopped a few inches away from his shoulder and glared at him. Uh huh. Right. That's what NORMAL people do all the time. She extended the hand clutching her blaster until it…poked him in the side of the face. Twice. O-kaaaaay…

"Val? Why are you poking me with a gun?" Her eyes narrowed and she did it again. Danny was really weirded out. By then she was just repeatedly poking him with the blaster and he was getting kind of pissed.

"What the _hell _are you doing?" she stopped poking him and stepped back.

DPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDP

'_Hmm. He seems solid enough, and he did blink every time I poked him.'_ That was a normal human reflex…When a human was being overshadowed did they still have those? Valerie wasn't sure. Valerie contemplated the frustrated expression on his face. That was pretty human, wasn't it? He looked just like he normally did. His eyebrows were drawn together and he…well, he actually kind of looked like an angry puppy.

Valerie felt the strange urge to giggle. Her adorable puppy tied to a tree. Hehe. Ooh, wait, he was talking to her.

"I mean for heavens sake, Val! I wake up and not only has my ex-girlfriend punched my lights out, but she's also tied me to a freaking tree! Personal boundaries much anyone?"

His head was jerking furiously as he ranted. Idly, Valerie noted the way his ice blue eyes glinted furiously at her. She'd never seen eyes that color before. Her stomach did a little flip, and she was reminded of how happy she'd felt when they had been going out. Wait a sec. She was his ex-girlfriend, and she'd tied him to a tree. Damn. That was kinda kinky, wasn't it. She bit her lip, thinking about how exactly she was going to explain this. _'Wait. Valerie. Remember, this ISN'T Danny. It's not him. THIS Danny is NOT cute. Not one bit. You don't have to explain anything, you don't have to worry about his feelings or what he's thinking because this ISN"T HIM.' _Dang. She was really having a hard time wrapping her head around it. But hey. It had to be true, there was no way this was Danny. It just wasn't possible. Not possible for her Danny to be grinning Danny Phantom's grin. Not possible for him to heal that fast. Not possible for her Danny to even _be_ here.

Wait a sec. She'd just called him 'her' Danny. Damn.


	4. Pacing

Blink… Awkward pause…Blink again.

Sigh.

'_Okay, this is getting us nowhere.' _

Valerie Gray sighed once more and slowly rose from her position on the forest floor. She was at her wit's end. What the HELL was one supposed to do in a situation like this? Something was obviously up with Danny and the ghost kid, but how in the world was she supposed to figure it out?

Staring a hole through Danny Fenton's head yielding rather disappointing results. He just sat there, shifting awkwardly every few seconds, looking…well, Human. There was really no other way to put it. She'd read that when a person was overshadowed, their eyes always gave them away by glowing or changing color, but _his_ eyes…they looked the same. No difference from any other time she'd seen him.

Valerie started pacing, biting her bottom lip while she let her red leather clad feet shuffle through the brush and fallen leaves that created a carpet on the ground.

Maybe…maybe they were working together? Perhaps Danny had been helping the ghost boy, and then when Phantom had been injured, he'd somehow fallen through the trees and landed on Fenton?

…

That sounded rather stupid, but it was better than nothing. Now that she thought about it, Danny did seem to disappear around the time the Ghost kid showed up, and the Goth and Tucker were often at the scene…and Danny always seemed to show up wherever the ghost kid had been causing havoc…but that didn't really make sense. Why would she only see Sam and Tucker around while Phantom was actually rampaging? Unless-

Valerie suddenly had the urge to hit herself in the forehead, but she refrained, only letting the tiniest hint of a smile show around the edges of her mouth. Danny had to keep hidden because of his _parents!_ What would the town's most well known Ghost hunters do if they discovered their son had been off helping a ghost? The poor kid would be dead meat. She shook her head ruefully. Those parents of his would give him a whole heck of a lot of trouble when they found out, that was for sure. And they _would _find out if she had anything to do with it. He'd deserve whatever punishment they gave him. Honestly, helping a ghost? And _Phantom _no less. It didn't matter if he was her ex-boyfriend. IT didn't even matter that he was giving her soulful pleading adorable look from the tree he was bound to. Nope. Cute eyes and adorably messy hair would not sway her!

Danny tilted his head.

Valeries heart leapt all the way into her throat and she almost choked.

'_Damn it.' _She swore, turning away to hide her red face. '_Okay, maybe they'll sway me a little bit.'_

Heck, for all she knew, he'd actually been _hunting _Phantom, not helping him. Although…why would he have to hide from his parents then? _'You'd think they'd be ecstatic to see their own kid following in their footsteps.' _

She paused in her pacing, letting her arms fall to her sides. Suddenly her eyes lit up_. 'Of course! Those wackos, they rush over to the school at the slightest hint of ghostly activity.'_ she shuddered, reliving the time they'd responded to the newly installed ghost alarm and blasted Mr. Lancers clothes clean off, scaring half the school with the sight of his Shakespearian boxers. Gross. '_They're already insanely protective, no way would they actually allow him to hunt phantom without them being there to screw everything up.' _

Suddenly, Valerie felt rather pissed. She'd broken up with him so he wouldn't get hurt because of _her _ghost hunting! If it turned out he'd been putting himself in danger the whole time, his parents wouldn't be the only thing he'd have to worry about. She huffed.

'_Okay. So, I've established that this could be Danny. Seems human, blinked when I poked him, I can see his chest moving so he's most likely breathing…but if he _is_ Danny there is no way he ended up here by chance. Either he walked or someone brought him here, and since I'm the only other person within a ..' _she paused to check the tracking device on the arm of her suit, _'three mile radius, that means the only way he could have gotten out here was with Phantom. OR some other ghost that left really fast.' _

She stopped walking back and forth and took a deep breath before sinking to the ground once more. This really was going nowhere. Valerie knew with certainty that there was a snowball's chance in hell of Danny answering her questions truthfully, but how else was she supposed to get any answers out of him?

If she didn't say anything, he'd just lie or stay quiet. But if she did, if she told him what she thought and she was wrong, there was always the chance that he'd just go with it, let her think she was right in the hopes of her accepting it and leaving him alone.

She hissed out a breath of air in frustration and tried to calm down. Let the creative juices start flowing. Just how could she make him spill?

Birds chirped, cicadas hummed, and a delicate brown eyebrow twitched, before a piercing shriek of frustration, curtsey of one Valerie Gray, sliced sharply through the silence, spurring the birds to flight and the cicadas to silence.

There was nothing she could do. Nothing! More than twenty minutes had passed as she sifted through theory after theory, each time poking hole after hole into a possible plan until there was nothing left. She let her head fall into her hands, thick clumps of her frizzy hair falling forward and shrouding her shoulders. Why did this have to happen? Why did Danny Fenton have stick his stupidly cute face in this mess? A frustrated growl escaped her lips and she shot up off the ground where she had been sitting. Blazing brown eyes took a moment to glare at Danny, who appeared to be attempting to melt into the tree behind him, before Valerie turned away and started pacing, her sharp steps crunching through the leaves on the forest floor.

"_I can't do anything to him. I can't hurt him, he might be human. I can't let him go, he might be a ghost!'_

Taking a deep breath she whirled around again, and the terrifyingly fierce look in her eyes made Danny cringe. She stalked forwards, and before he could say a word she had knelt in front of him and her cool hand was pressed oddly gentle way against his neck, her eyes boring into his.

The forest was silent, the only sound coming from the gentle breeze ruffling their hair and making the leaves on the trees slowly dance.

Danny was frozen, staring into her eyes, afraid that moving might break the strange stillness that had oh-so-suddenly settled upon them. As he watched, the spark of anger in her eyes slowly died, replaced by confusion, and as her face fell, a strange kind of hopelessness.

"You.." she choked out, her hand slowly stroking the side of his face in an unconscious movement, "you have a pulse." Her throat was burning, and it hurt as she swallowed. "You can't fake that. I can feel it. You have to be human." Her hand fell from his face to land heavily in her lap.

"Danny, how did you get out here? I mean really, don't lie to me. Not now." She stared earnestly into his wide eyes, blinking hard to hold the tears back. '_Stupid teenaged hormones. It should take a lot more than this to make me cry. Gotta be the stress. I'm not even sad.'_ A bitter chuckle tried to force its way out of her chest, but she held it back. _'I've eliminated a pretty big chunk of my theories,' _she thought ruefully_, 'I should be relieved,' _

'_But I'm not.'_

_Ch 4 finally got here! woot~_

_yeah. She's hormonal, forgive the mood-swings, por favor~_

_Like always, reviews are appreciated. BE they those lovely ones that tell me what I'm doing right, those equally lovely ones that tell me what I'm doing wrong, or those not so lovely ones that burn, I treasure them all._

_...seriously, guys. feedback necessary. you guys all want funny? ya want angst? TELL ME.  
_


	5. Inner smart-ass

Well well well.

Look who's still alive.

that's right, Freedom toaster.

Woo.

LAST TIME, on this stupid little story you've all probably forgotten about:

"You.." she choked out, her hand slowly stroking the side of his face in an unconscious movement, "you have a pulse." Her throat was burning, and it hurt as she swallowed. "You can't fake that. I can feel it. You have to be human." Her hand fell from his face to land heavily in her lap.

"Danny, how did you get out here? I mean really, don't lie to me. Not now." She stared earnestly into his wide eyes, blinking hard to hold the tears back. '_Stupid teenaged hormones. It should take a lot more than this to make me cry. Gotta be the stress. I'm not even sad.'_ A bitter chuckle tried to force its way out of her chest, but she held it back. _'I've eliminated a pretty big chunk of my theories,' _she thought ruefully_, 'I should be relieved,' _

'_But I'm not.'_

_AND WHOOOOO HERE WE GO._

She looked like she was trying not to cry.

…

Well, shit.

HIS ONE WEAKNESS.

Crying females.

Seriously, give him a ghost with a flaming sword and missiles of death any day of the week; he could deal. Crying girls? Yeah, not so much.

'O_kay, Fenton, as long as she doesn't actually start to cry, you're set. Just… don't let the actual tears come, 'cause then you're screwed, and we both know it.'_

Wait a second, _'Both'_?

Dammit.

Reeeally not the best time for hidden psychological issues to surface.

GAH focus, Dammit.

Okay.

He, he really didn't want to lie to her. She was so close, and he felt like she was really reaching out to him. Maybe… maybe this was his chance. He'd contemplated telling her about his ghost half when they'd been going out, but in the end she'd broken up with him before he'd actually done it.

'_Maybe I could make her understand. She's not holding a gun to my face anymore, and even though she obviously knows something is up she's sitting pretty darn close to me._'

Could he do this?

There was the wee problem of being completely at her mercy…

But he was pretty sure she wouldn't try to annihilate him as long as she knew he was a human, _'I mean, that's what made her let Danni go, right? That human connection?' _

…

He was going to go ahead and file that as a 'Maybe'.

And that meant, if he did tell her and she went berserk, he'd need an escape route.

'_hmmm hmm hmm…escape route…OH! No flipping DUH Fenton.' _ He'd just have to get her to get the cuffs off. And then, if she decided to kill him he'd be able to go intangible or something and convince her that the whole thing had been a trick, courtesy of Danny Phantom. _'Depressingly defeats the whole point of telling her by that point, since I'll just make her hate me more but WHATEVER at least she'll only hate half of me.'_

Okay.

Now to get her to take off the cuffs.

Hmm.

"Before I say anything, you think you could do me a favor and get these things off of me? Reeeally cutting off blood flow, if you know what I mean." He smiled nervously.

She stared.

He was gonna try to do a runner, wasn't he.

She fuckin' knew it.

Damn him.

And yet…She was going to take the cuffs off anyway.

He was Danny. The pulse proved he was human and really, at this point her mind was just too tired to think up any other options. She was pretty sure she'd just drive herself in a circle, anyway.

"Haha, I mean really, Val, Do you tie up all your boyfriends this way or am I just special?"

Her face twisted.

Okay never mind. He could rot.

He was mentally smacking himself in the face.

'_Damn you adrenalin!'_

Always seemed to release his inner smart-ass.

Valerie stood, the urge to cry pushed away by the brand new urge to smack the shit out of her ex.

"Yeah, see, I was thinking about it, but now… Not like you need to stand to talk."

She smirked. "What are you going to do if I get rid of the cuffs, Danny? Run away? If I just don't let you go, I don't have to worry about it at all."

She bent down, resting her arm on the tree above his head and letting her face dip down until their noses were almost touching.

"And you know what, Danny? If you're not going to talk, I think I'll just leave you here."

He blinked.

She grinned and straightened, before spinning on her heal and starting to walk away.

Danny watched her walk away, hips swinging, as he gaped in shock_. 'Okay THAT was unexpected. Jeebus girls are weird.'_ He stared for a moment more, trying really really hard not to stare as her ass. (And could you blame him? Curvy lady wearing skin-tight red leather in prime position for ass-staring, Right in front of him.) Wait a second. She was actually leaving. "Seriously?! Val, Come on! You can't just leave me here!"

Her voice, muffled a bit since she hadn't turned around, carried back to him. "What was that? Was it the sound of someone offering to tell me the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?"

"_Seriously_?!" He yelped.

"I'm not hearing truth-telling!" she sing-songed back.

"Fine! I'll tell you the truth! Jeesh, just don't leave me here!"

Valerie Grinned. _'Hah, knew he'd cave.'_

She resisted the urge to giggle, knowing full well that she was still a little high off of the burst of adrenalin she's gotten from acting like a total BAMF and damn but she really wished she'd had a camera. His face had been priceless.

She did an about-face and slowly started walking back towards him, being really extra careful to swing her hips just a little extra more because really, it wasn't like it could hurt, right?

As smoking hot as Valerie looked slowly making her way over to Danny, his attention was elsewhere. It had been snatched away just a split second before by a strange, high pitched whining noise that was growing louder each moment. Danny was frozen, ears straining as he tried to make out what the hell it was.

"Val," he said lowly, "Can you hear that?"

She halted, surprised. "Hear what?"

The sound increased, and soon he was wincing, longing to be able to pull his hands up to his ears in an attempt to block it out.

"Danny?" Her voice was worried and he could hear her footsteps quicken as she hurried over to his hunched figure. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah" he managed to gasp out, "Yeah, I'm fine, that noise, it's just…really loud." She was kneeling next to him, hand on his shoulder, leaning in close. This would have been awesome if he wasn't about to bleed his brains right out his dang _ears_.

Valerie couldn't hear anything.

And it was scaring the shit of of her.

What if he had some sort of head injury, like a burst blood vessel or a concussion or something and it was all her fault? She had hit him quite a few times, and it had been surprising that he'd been okay so quickly… What if he hadn't been? _'No, don't feel relieved that means he's INJURED!'_ She was panicking, her hands fluttering around, afraid to touch him in case she made it worse. '_Ah! Girl, wachu you doin'? Undo those dang cuffs _now_! If anything's making him worse, it's those!' _She scooted quickly around to the back of the tree, fumbling frantically for the key. It took her two tries but she finally got it in the key-hole, twisting ferociously and nearly breaking the key off in the lock in her hurry to get them off of him. As his wrists were released he fell forward, eyes screwed shut, and she quickly gathered him to her, brushing his hair away from his forehead. "Where does it hurt, Danny?!"

He looked up at her blearily. What the hell kind of a question was that. His ears, obviously. The problem was a noise and as soon as he'd been able to he'd clamped his hands to the sides of his head. His 'what-the-hell-is-wrong-with-you' look was apparently effective because the next thing out of her mouth was a slightly embarrassed "Oh. Yeah. My bad."

The noise was getting both louder and higher pitched and he couldn't help but curl in on himself as though it would help him get away from it. What the hell was going on? He could seriously barely _think_. Agh.

Valerie was still trying to talk to him, but he could hardly hear her, let alone actually comprehend what she was saying. Suddenly, she stood. He took a moment to miss the comfort of her arms around him before getting back to being in incomprehensible pain.

No.

NO.

She was standing, Danny collapsed at her feet (again), staring in horror at the scanner on her suit.

She'd been about to attempt a scan on him in the hopes that it might help her figure out what was wrong with him when she'd noticed that the newly installed ghost repeller had apparently been switched on when she'd leaned her arm against the tree Danny had been cuffed to.

The Ghost repeller emitted a high pitched whine that was tuned especially to ghosts, kind of like a dog whistle except for the fact that it was supposed to be painful as fuck and as such would keep ghosts as far away as possible.

And it looked like Danny was reacting to it.

He had a pulse.

She'd been reasonably sure he wasn't overshadowed.

And yet, he could hear the ghost repeller.

What. The. FUCK.

…

Goddammit.

AAAAND we're done.

Yay.

Reviews of all kinds make my days brighter.

I know deep down y'all are pissy little smart asses, so come on, gimme yer best flame...is what I'd say if I wasn't such a wuss.

:D

Love you all except not really 'cause I don't know any of you~

Okay, like you a lot by way of mutual obsession over fanfiction.

Also there was a lot of cussing in this. does that offend anyone? if so, tell me so i can go back and change it all to "Crud" and "Darn".


End file.
